


There Was More Than One Bed (but in the end there was only one)

by EdnaV



Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: 6000 Years of Pining (Good Omens), Happy Ending, Ineffable Husbands (Good Omens), M/M, Pining, Podfic Available, Soft Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens), THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED, except that there's more than one, with the tiniest bit of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:35:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25499941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EdnaV/pseuds/EdnaV
Summary: Sometimes Aziraphale and Crowley spend the night together. But it takes some time to share more than a bed.
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Comments: 41
Kudos: 131
Collections: Holly Jolly July: a Good Omens Gift Exchange





	There Was More Than One Bed (but in the end there was only one)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SylviaW1991](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SylviaW1991/gifts).



> The idea of “sleeping in your own bed” is relatively recent. Until the 18th century, people used to share their beds. Most travellers used to share their bed in common rooms. Efficient central heating changed a lot of things. 
> 
> [This is a very interesting article on the topic.](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/communal-sleeping-history-sharing-bed)
> 
> And this is for [SylviaW1991](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SylviaW1991) \- my little attempt to subvert the "there was only one bed" trope...
> 
> (This fic wouldn't have worked without the beta of [reduntant_angel.](https://archiveofourown.org/users/redundant_angel) Thank you for the corrections, the comments, the encouragement.)

#### Pisa, 1173

The first time Aziraphale and Crowley share a bed is in Pisa, in 1173.[1] It’s Crowley’s turn to cover for Aziraphale’s assignments, but Aziraphale knows this great place for chickpea soup. They decide that spending some time in each other’s good company is a perk of their Arrangement almost as much as not wasting too much time with their Head Offices’ assignments.

The soup is delicious, and the wine is even better. When they go back to the hostel, Crowley convinces Aziraphale to join him in the communal bed “to pass as human beings with our fellow travellers.”

Aziraphale stays wide awake all night. 

The next morning, he says that he enjoyed spending the night together.

“Then it’s settled,” Crowley says. “From now on, we share our bed.”

They shake on it, but they don’t really look each other in the eyes.

* * *

#### Rouen, 1305

The second time Aziraphale and Crowley share a bed is in Rouen, where they’re neither-blessing-nor-tempting a bishop. It’s Candlemas of the Year of our Lord 1305, and they have crepes, as you should do if you’re in Normandy on Candlemas. Or at least that’s what Aziraphale explains while Crowley dozes off. 

Later that night, Crowley turns into a snake. Aziraphale thanks God that there’s just the two of them in the room, and holds him close to protect him from the cold. He lets him go only when he shifts back into his human form just before waking up.

As they’re packing their bags, Crowley just says, “I’ve got a good feeling about this century.”

* * *

#### Athens, around 1600

The next time, they’re in Athens. It’s the end of the 16th Century or the beginning of the 17th. They didn’t have an assignment, they just meet by chance in a nice tavern.

They drink a bit too much, but for some reason they don’t feel like sobering up by way of a miracle. They can’t sleep because a bunch of stray cats are fighting under their windows. Every time they think of miracling them away, the feline racket seems to quiet on its own; as soon as Crowley closes his eyes, the war breaks out again.

Eventually, they give up: it lowers the chances to be noticed by their Head Offices while they’re relaxing in Greece instead of doing their jobs in Scotland, and anyway it’s nice to spend the night drinking ouzo and chatting about how things have changed since Sophocles’ times.

* * *

#### Paris, 1785

In 1785, they’re guests at Madame Le Brun’s residence,[2] and one of her white Persians decides that Crowley has occupied _her_ place on the sumptuous four-poster bed. Aziraphale considers moving the kitty, but the fluffy little darling is purring in such an endearing way that the only thing one can do is to pet her as she takes more and more space on the bed. 

The lovely creature keeps on pushing Crowley towards the edge of her the bed until he ends up sleeping mid-air; when he wakes up, he realises where he is and plummets. A last-minute angelic miracle turns the carpet into a very soft pillow. 

Aziraphale will joke about it for a month. 

* * *

#### Paris, 1793

A few years later, they lie down side by side in the Jardin du Luxembourg after some scrumptious crepes. 

They watch the stars come out. Crowley wonders how long it will take for human beings to find out about general relativity. They decide that on that day, they will get drunk on Amontillado. 

In 1919, Crowley will read something about a scientific experiment during an eclipse.[3] He hasn’t seen Aziraphale in almost sixty years, and he will spend a day considering whether to call at the bookshop. He won’t touch a drop of alcohol.

* * *

#### London, 1941

The first time that Aziraphale invites Crowley into the bed of the flat above the bookshop is in 1941, and he’s just survived a German bomb, Crowley’s driving, and the realisation that he’s been in love with a demon for the past six thousand years. 

As he watches his existence flash before his eyes, he tends to the burns on Crowley’s feet. 

“You’re not going anywhere until your soles have mended,” he says. 

His tone makes it clear that he won’t accept any objection, even if his voice isn’t completely steady. 

Crowley tosses and turns in his sleep. He mumbles something about losing his best friend. Aziraphale uses a miracle that should grant a night of rest to a human being; he can only pray that it works on a demon.

It does.

* * *

#### London, 1974

It’s 1974, and Crowley drags Aziraphale to see a concert. Aziraphale thinks that the music is not his cup of tea, but he really enjoys chatting with Crowley’s friend, the frontman and possibly the only person in the room who looks more shamelessly gay than Aziraphale.

The alcohol flows liberally and it turns out that it takes half a joint to make Crowley very woozy. The very queer frontman tells them to get some rest in his bed.

Two years later, the Bentley’s radio seems to have fallen in love with the band.[4]

* * *

#### London, 2019 (Saturday)

On the night following the afternoon in which there wasn’t an Apocalypse, Crowley shows Aziraphale around his flat. There is a sizeable bed in a large bedroom. There is a gigantic bed in a larger bedroom. And in a tiny room that qualifies as one of the most beloved and haunting creations of the former owner, a “disruptive” architect, there are no less than seven bunk beds.

They choose the largest bedroom. 

Crowley wishes away all his clothes with the exception of a pair of boxers. 

Aziraphale takes off his trousers, waistcoat and shirt as if he had all the time in the world and then some. He’s still wearing his stiff upper lip and propriety when he states in his most matter-of-fact voice, “I must say, I rather enjoyed telling Gabriel to go fuck himself.”

Crowley almost falls off the bed. He envelops Aziraphale in his arms and in his laughter; Aziraphale holds him and laughs in turn. They’ve never laughed as truly free beings, on their own side, and it’s intoxicating.

They’ve never been so naked in each other’s presence, or even to themselves, either. When they take off the rest of their clothes, it’s almost an afterthought.

Neither of them sleeps that night.

* * *

#### London, 2019 (Sunday)

After their first toast as free supernatural entities at the Ritz, Aziraphale wants to check the bookshop. 

Crowley helps him to check the bed upstairs. Together, they test the mattress more thoroughly than any online mattress retailer declares that his merchandise has been tested. They also test the sofa for similar weaknesses. The force of gravity objects to their test of Aziraphale’s armchair, which turns into a test of the old Persian carpet of the study. 

The testing activities are very pleasant, but even two supernatural beings with six thousand years of repressed sexual tension find them a bit taxing too.

As he’s about to lie down, Aziraphale blurts out, “I’ve never slept.”

“I know,” Crowley sighs. “What do you say, want to give it a try?”

“Well. I’d love to, my dear. Though, to be fair, I don’t know if...”

“Hey, no pressure, angel.” 

“No, it’s just...” Aziraphale whispers, “I can’t guarantee that I’m going to like it.”

“That’s the point of _trying,_ angel.”

It turns out that Aziraphale loves to sleep.

* * *

#### London, 2020

It’s not the last time that they sleep in the bookshop. They sleep in every bed in Crowley’s flat too. 

They sleep together, and they watch each other sleep. Aziraphale teases Crowley for a somersault from the top of a bunk bed to the ceiling and back in his sleep. Crowley loves to bask in the soft light of Aziraphale’s halo that shines through his best dreams. 

Eventually, they decide that they need a bed for _their side_. 

* * *

#### South Downs, 2024

There is a cottage in the South Downs. It’s not very large, even if one of the rooms contains far more books than an ordinary human being could fit in it. 

In the cottage, there is a bedroom. 

Only one.

In the bedroom, there is a bed.

Only one.

In the bed, there is an angel and there is a demon, who sometimes turns into a snake.

Sometimes they sleep. Sometimes they look into each other’s eyes. They laugh very often.

They are one.

* * *

### Footnotes

1. The construction of the (eventually Leaning) Tower of Pisa started in 1173.↩

2. Élizabeth Vigée Le Brun was Marie Antoinette’s favourite painter.↩

3. Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity was proven by an experiment by Frank Watson Dyson and Arthur Stanley Eddington in 1919.↩

4. Queen’s album A Night at the Races was released on 10th December 1976. The third song on side two is Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy. Make of it what you will.↩

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] There Was More Than One Bed (but in the end there was only one)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28515531) by [Jet_pods (Jetainia)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jetainia/pseuds/Jet_pods)




End file.
